Time: our most precious resource
We all have the same budget that we are accountable for managing, and the better we manage it, the higher our satisfaction level will be. This budget is our own time. We decide how to use it. Therefore, the question is, how can we make the best use of our time?
Identify the annual cycles
Some periods of the year are heavy-loaded, and some are quieter. This is why I go from top to bottom, starting by identifying the large blocks of mandatory activities that I will have during the year. Then, I create my annual schedule, which will become the skeleton for all my activities.
Build a robust yearly plan
In my whole career, I have worked for several large companies, and they have almost the same steps in annual planning. These steps cannot change . As an example :
- the project plan season for the next year,
- budget prevision,
- reforecast season,
- merit review, end-of-year review,
- and vacation seasons
Designing your annual planning will help you to determine when you want to have specific initiatives, such as:
- team building,
- brainstorming sessions over one or two weeks,
- Progress plan
Engage your team, in identifying and structuring special projects
For these specific initiatives, involve your team and stakeholders to identify, develop, and select the projects and activities that matter most for your group. Turn them into actors and decision‑makers. They will become the promoters of these initiatives, giving you a real opportunity to distribute responsibilities more effectively between you and your team members.
If you are managing a large group with a healthy project portfolio, ask each project manager to add all the planned gates for the upcoming year to the annual planning. And, with the project managers spreading all the meetings and gates on the yearlong, it will create a regular pacing of gate meetings, and by ensuring that not all the gates happen at year-end, you remove an unnecessary stress level for everyone.
Now that you have your annual planning, what will be your next step?
One trap to avoid is creating a detailed year-long plan. While it’s easy to develop, maintaining it becomes a time-consuming task. It will be accurate for the next 4-6 weeks and then become outdated.
To manage my time effectively, I prefer a robust six-week look-ahead. This involves retrieving meetings and working sessions from the annual plan, adding preparation work, and setting up necessary discussions six weeks in advance.
In conclusion, to master your time
Plan global activities for the entire year to prevent overloaded periods. Start by identifying the large blocks of mandatory activities and create an annual schedule, which will become the skeleton for all your activities. and the second stage of the approach is to develop a robust six-week look-ahead with a time-boxing approach to control your execution.
Question: How do you ensure that your detailed planning remains flexible and adaptable to changes throughout the year?
Reading: which book would you recommend ?
r discover others?
🛠️ Three simple actions to manage time
allocate 20% of my time for emergencies and ad-hoc requests from employees, colleagues, or peers. This ensures my availability. Each week, I update my six-week look-ahead.
This six-week look-ahead uses time-boxing. The detail level balances the time spent building and maintaining it with the efficiency gained.
maximize a one-hour time slot, assign a concise to-do list to it. For the first few weeks, track your success rate by comparing planned tasks to completed ones. This will help you better tailor the number of items you can address during a one-hour focus time.
👉 These three simple actions strengthen your leadership posture and unlock your potential.
Coaching or Mentoring: Your Choice, Your Growth
I’m Franck Dervault, drawing on years of professional experience and now advancing toward certification as a coach. I offer two distinct paths:
- Coaching to help you unlock your own potential through reflection, presence, and guided discovery.
- Mentoring to share lessons, strategies, and insights from my career so you can navigate challenges with confidence.
Whichever path you choose, my goal is the same: to help you realize that you are wiser than you think, with immense potential waiting to be unlocked.
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